Tired of guides telling you to reinstall, verify cache, copy files, set compatibility modes, install DSfix etc, to get rid of the "Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition has stopped working" error on startup?

Chances are that you have never played any XBOX games or used Games for Windows Live or anything like that, which means you do not have a Windows Live account. That is the cause of all our problems and none of the abovementioned will solve that.

Luckily, you don't need the account anymore, because the developers made a different solution available for Steam users since 15th December and it's really easy to get it:

1) Open your Steam Library, Right click your Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition and select Properties:



2) Here, switch to the BETAS tab and select the only available beta from the list:



3) Click Close. Congrats, all done!

Steam will now start allocating space and downloading an update. If you have the game already installed, it should be ~ 50 MB. Wait for the update to finish, then start the game.

Enjoy!

For all the people who already have some SAVE files and achievements on the Windows Live and want to STOP using Windows Live, head here:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/211420/discussions/0/626329187083042093/
there you will find a guide how to move your SAVE files from Windows Live to Steamworks.